A recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling could have implications for how certain sanctions-related payment issues are treated under force majeure clauses in contracts.
The U.K. High Court of Justice on May 10 made permanent a court order blocking sanctioned Russian entity VEB from taking a dispute with Barclays Bank to an arbitration court in Russia. The court rejected VEB's claim that British sanctions "frustrated" an arbitration agreement between the parties.
The U.K. High Court of Justice on May 3 said funds are subject to sanctions when a party can prove that the funds are being "in fact controlled" by a sanctioned party, not when there's "only reasonable cause to suspect" they are controlled by a sanctioned party, according to the Global Sanctions blog.
DOJ on May 1 filed a forfeiture action against "a set of aircraft landing gear for a Boeing 737-800" CBP detained in Miami in September, the agency announced. The gear was bought to benefit a Kyrgyzstan-based transshipper of dual-use items "servicing" Russia, "in violation of U.S. economic sanctions."
Brooklyn, New York, resident Nikolay Grigorev pleaded guilty April 30 for his role in a scheme to illicitly export electronic components from the U.S. to companies linked to the Russian military, DOJ announced.
The U.K. added a general license under its Russia and Belarus sanctions regime allowing legal service providers to receive and send payments to and from or on behalf of a sanctioned party. Sanctioned parties are likewise allowed to "pay professional legal fees, Counsel's fees, and/or Expenses to a Law Firm, a Legal Adviser, Counsel or a provider of Expenses for Legal Services which have been provided to that" sanctioned party. The legal fees may not exceed 1 million British pounds "per Law Firm" for the duration of the license, which ends Oct. 28.
The Dutch Supreme Court on April 24 said it will refer two preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice concerning the effect of EU Russia sanctions on sanctioned parties' shareholder voting rights, according to an unofficial translation.
The EU General Court last week rejected a challenge from Belgium and Czech Republic-based company Cogebi to EU import restrictions on Russian-made mica products. The court said that the European Council had laid out sufficient reasons for barring the import of mica products in that the council appropriately found the sale of mica products to "generate significant revenues for the Russian Federation."
The Court of International Trade on April 19 sent back the International Trade Commission's decision to cumulate imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from Argentina, Mexico, Russia and South Korea, in part because the commission failed to take into account the effect of U.S. sanctions on Russia in assessing whether the Russian goods compete at the same level of competition as the good from the other nations.
Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.